Button fastest in Turkey

The first day of practice for the Turkish GP ended with Jenson Button at the head of the field.

Lewis Hamilton quickly resumed his work in this afternoon’s practice session and put his McLaren on top with his first flying lap. Robert Kubica and Jenson Button immediately went faster than him but the Briton stroke back and retook the top spot with only ten minutes gone.

Both Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel came out last, while Adrian Sutil waited for his mechanics to repair his Force India (following his crash in the morning). They got straight on the pace and settled themselves in third and fourth positions.

Nico Rosberg waited for the midway point to post a time on the board and immediately appeared in the top ten. He lapped slightly slower than his teammate Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton and Vettel went out on the soft tyre with 40 minutes to go, and the German edged out on top with a 1’28’’590 lap time. Button improved on Vettel’s time a few minutes later and reclaimed top spot for McLaren Mercedes.

Webber moved up to P2 in the final part of the session but then had to stop his car in the first part of the track, with just a couple of minutes remaining. Replays showed a light wisp of smoke coming from the back of his RB6.

The Australian eventually retained his 2nd position while Jenson Button ended the session on top. Vettel was third fastest, Hamilton fourth and Alonso fifth. Rosberg finished sixth, having lapped slightly faster than his teammate Michael Schumacher.

Kubica, Petrov and Massa rounded off the top ten.

Down the field, Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams’ drivers. Virgin’s di Grassi managed to split the Lotus while the HRTs of Senna and Chandhok came last. The Indian driver had a spin in the closing part of the session.